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Attacks against schools and children increasing: report

Madeleine MorrisUpdated
Fri 12 Jul 2013, 10:14 AM AEST

Later today in New York, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot for speaking out in support of girls' education will address the General Assembly. Her appearance is remarkable. Malala Yousafzai is just 16 years old, but she's also very lucky to be alive after being attacked by Taliban gunmen. But her case isn't remarkable.

Transcript

TONY EASTLEY: Later today in New York, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot for speaking out in support of girls' education will address the General Assembly. Her appearance is extraordinary. Malala Yousafzai is just 16 years old, but she's also very lucky to be alive after being attacked by the Taliban.

But her case isn't all that remarkable.

Globally, more than 3,500 attacks against schools, teachers and kids in schools occurred last year, according to a new report from the charity Save the Children. That's twice as many as two years ago.

Madeleine Morris has this report.

(Sound of children in school)

MADELEINE MORRIS: At a school in Pakistan's Buner district, young girls are working hard in their language class. They are fortunate to be there.

FARAH (translated): There was a fight between the army and the militants. I had to leave my home. I was very upset leaving my friends in school.

MADELEINE MORRIS: This young girl, Farah is one of 50 million children around the world who stopped going to school because of armed conflict.

She now attends a new school for girls, and was interviewed by the charity Save the Children, who today have published a report showing that attacks on education, like those suffered by Farah and the Pakistani school girl Malala Yousafzai, are on the rise.

Stephen McDonald is Save the Children's head of humanitarian emergencies.

STEPHEN MCDONALD: What we're seeing is a trend which means that nearly 50 million kids are out of school as a result of conflict. The proportion of children who are out of school has increased from 42 per cent to 50 per cent and that figure's important because what it indicates is that the conflicts that we're seeing around the world are having a greater impact on a child's right to access education.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Of the 3,500 attacks on children's education that took place last year, the vast majority were in Syria. Many were deliberate.

This boy, also interviewed by Save the Children, is one of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian children now living in refugee camps.

SYRIAN CHILD (translated): I am in ninth grade. I lost the chance to graduate. I should have graduated and gone to high school to start building my future but now it's destroyed. It's had a very big effect on me.

MADELEINE MORRIS: Stephen McDonald says in refugee camps that he has worked in, after food and shelter, what people want most is for their kids to go to school.

STEPHEN MCDONALD: Kids really value education. It helps to kind of normalise their lives a bit but also it's a protective environment for the future because if we don't ensure that these kids have access to skills and knowledge, then the whole future of that society is compromised.

MADELEINE MORRIS: But he says despite high levels of children out of school, funding for education in refugee camps is woefully inadequate, making up just 1.5 per cent of global humanitarian funding in 2012.

It's something he hopes the Australian Government will focus on when it takes over the presidency of the UN Security Council later this year.

STEPHEN MCDONALD: We really want to see education given the same kinds of protection as other facilities during times of conflict.

MADELEINE MORRIS: But with a solution to the Syrian conflict nowhere in sight and hundreds of schools destroyed the situation for children there and in many other places of conflict around the world is likely to get worse before it gets better.